The “Hallmark Hall of Fame” will turn 60 soon, and like many of us who reach that milestone, it’s trying not to look its age. Television’s longest-running prime-time program begins a new era this weekend at the ABC network after 16 years at CBS. Ask the people at Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards if viewers can expect a new look, or new anything, and you’ll get a standard response.“My assignment is to do wonderful, high-quality productions that equate this brand with positive human values,” said Brad Moore, a 32-year veteran of the company and the president of Hall of Fame Productions. “The fact that we’ve changed networks doesn’t mean we’re changing what we’re doing.” But look closely and you’ll see a nip here, a tuck there. The promos running on ABC seem just a tad livelier than the ones that aired on CBS. The first two “Hall of Fames” at ABC have not a single star older than 52; the last two “Hall of Fames” at CBS featured, among others, 89-year-old Betty White and 59-year-old Treat Williams. Hallmark executives stress that these changes are evolutionary and have been going on for decades as “Hall of Fame” has adapted to the changing realities of network television. One of those realities is that CBS is a different network since “CSI” came along.“This is in no way critical of CBS, who were great partners, but they modified their programming approach over the years,” Moore said. “Our fit with ABC is better. Their programming tends to be more emotionally based and more female-oriented.”Appearing on four networks over six decades, “Hallmark Hall of Fame” is a relic of television’s long-forgotten “golden age.” But it is also a model of where many industry observers say television needs to go in the future: toward single-sponsor programs that are “DVR-proof,” with commercials that are tightly integrated into the show and just as compelling.“Our research shows that viewers like the commercials as much as they like the movies,” Moore said. “When I explain this to my counterparts in Los Angeles, they look at me with awe.”Still, it takes two to tango, and if “Hall of Fame” is to continue its unmatched run on broadcast TV it must deliver solid ratings to ABC with its three specials this season.Adept at reinventionIn its final broadcast on CBS, the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” drew 8.6 million viewers, well below the network’s Sunday average. Its ratings were considerably lower among younger viewers — the very consumers who are vital to both the business of television and Hallmark.On the other hand, reinvention seems to be in Hallmark’s DNA. After mass layoffs in 2008 and 2009, the company recognized that it would need to expand its core business beyond greeting cards and keepsakes, which were seasonal purchases. So it moved aggressively into new products with year-round appeal. One addition is a line of recordable storybooks that allow children to have stories read to them in their parents’ voices when they are away.These products will be front and center during the signature two-minute commercials for Hallmark that air throughout “Hall of Fame” this season. Viewers will be reminded that the company’s new slogan is “Life Is a Special Occasion,” a messaging strategy that extends to the choice of stories being told on “Hall of Fame.”The first, airing 8 p.m. Sunday on KMBC, is based on the Mitch Albom best-seller “Have a Little Faith,” about an inspirational rabbi and preacher Albom knew. The next, “A Smile as Big as the Moon,” about a special education teacher who takes his class to U.S. Space Camp in Alabama, will air in early 2012. The third, airing in the spring, will be about girls in a juvenile detention facility who learn life-saving skills as part of their rehabilitation.“The fact that these stories reflect everyday lives and everyday people is very deliberate,” said Lisa Macpherson, Hallmark’s senior vice president of marketing. “It would be very unlikely for the next production we do to be a period drama or to be based around a singular, once in a lifetime event.”Reinvention is nothing new for Hallmark’s signature program, either.Focus turns to womenWhen “Hallmark Hall of Fame” flickered to life in 1951, American networks were in the middle of only their fourth full season. Almost everything in prime time was live, which meant lots of quiz shows, boxing matches and other cheap, ready-made entertainment. If a sponsor wanted to stand out, it had to shell out. And in the 1950s no company rose to the occasion better than Kraft Foods. Its weekly “Kraft Television Theatre” staged more than 650 live productions that were loaded with writing and acting talent. One 1956 re-enactment of the sinking of the Titanic had 107 actors.Hallmark never aspired to that kind of output. Its specials were, then as now, timed to card-giving holidays. But company founder Joyce C. Hall was as determined as any sponsor to make his mark on the new medium. The first production, “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” won the first of 11 Peabody Awards for “Hall of Fame” and the first of 80 Emmy Awards, both records for an entertainment program. Hallmark amassed critical and peer acclaim by going the prestige route, with fresh interpretations of classic works as well as the best of contemporary drama.“J.C. Hall was a real fan of theater, and a lot of the early ‘Hallmark Hall of Fames’ were Shakespeare, Shaw and Ibsen, as well as more recent plays like ‘Dial M for Murder’ and ‘Johnny Belinda,’ ” said Jan Parkinson, a longtime “Hall of Fame” executive. “But that was at a time when there wasn’t as much regional theater, and a lot of the country was getting exposed to these productions for the first time.”As viewers gravitated toward Westerns and other formulaic dramas, most sponsors, including Kraft, abandoned live drama. But Hallmark persevered.Tim Brooks, a former TV executive and historian, said that unlike most corporate advertisers, “Hallmark was a smaller company with management in the family that went their own way. If they’d had an executive committee of outsiders, they probably would’ve gotten out, too.”Instead, Hallmark took control of the production process, which had been handled for 35 years by its advertising agency. “Hall of Fame” commissioned historical dramas like “The Other World of Winston Churchill” while continuing to feature top New York stage productions, including “The Fantasticks” and “Inherit the Wind.” By the mid-1980s it was winning acclaim for a string of social-concern dramas like “Promise” (schizophrenia) and “My Name Is Bill W.” (alcoholism). By the late 1980s, Hallmark was moving toward stories about relationships. By this time research was showing that cable channels had begun to fragment the television audience and that broad-based crowd-pleasers would soon be a thing of the past.“We decided we’d better be focusing on women,” Moore said. Hallmark still filmed historical dramas, but now they featured strong female protagonists, like Jessica Lange’s character in the adaptation of Willa Cather’s “O Pioneers!”“We became known for a certain emotional, heartwarming drama,” Moore said. “We’ve stayed there, but the subject matter has become more contemporary.”Younger viewers on ABCThough the audience has often forced Hallmark to change its approach, the move to ABC is a case of the sponsor changing its audience. On Sunday nights ABC is a markedly different arena than CBS, thanks to a number of relationship dramas that have proven to be hugely popular among women ages 18-49, starting with “Desperate Housewives” in 2004. Fortunately for Hallmark, the show that precedes “Hall of Fame” on ABC, “Once Upon a Time,” is the network’s highest-rated new show of the season and is second only to “Modern Family” among ABC shows in its appeal to viewers ages 18-49. It draws 40 percent more young adults than “The Amazing Race,” the reality show that led into “Hall of Fame” on CBS.“Ideally we can deliver to the franchise an audience CBS wasn’t reaching earlier,” said Quinn Taylor, the ABC executive in charge of movies and miniseries. “To me, it highlights the legacy and tradition of Hallmark, but with a very modern ABC feel.”Ten years ago, the Hallmark Channel launched, giving Hallmark its own cable outlet for “Hall of Fame” repeats. Beginning this season, they will air on Hallmark Channel a week after their ABC broadcast, which will allow the company to claim additional sets of eyes in the overall audience.It’s possible that someday Hallmark will have no choice but to leave network TV and air “Hall of Fame” exclusively on its cable home. But Moore, “Hall of Fame’s” president, is optimistic that won’t be for a long time.“We’ve been able to stem the tide of audience erosion, certainly better than anybody that’s been around 60 years. The biggest pressure in day-to-day work is finding the right idea — one that’s worthy of being produced and shared as a ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame.’ It’s a very high standard. But as I always tell people, I have the best job in television. And I get to live here in Kansas City.”

KansasCity.com

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‘Hallmark Hall of Fame’ gets a new home on ABC

By AARON BARNHART

The Kansas City Star

Sixty years of ‘Fame’

• First broadcast: Dec. 24, 1951 (“Amahl and the Night Visitors”)

• Other firsts: First TV movie shot on film; first nationwide telecast in color

• The series has aired on four networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS

• Total broadcasts: 243, including encores

• Most watched: “What the Deaf Man Heard,” Nov. 23, 1997

• Shakespeare-themed: Eight, including two “Macbeths” and “Hamlets”

• Awards: 129, including 80 Emmys

• Stars with Oscars: 62

• Little-known actors at the time: “Larry” Fishburne in “Decoration Day” (1990), Jennifer Garner in “Rose Hill” (1997)

• Archive: Video of all “Hall of Fame” telecasts is preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Source: Hallmark

More News

The “Hallmark Hall of Fame” will turn 60 soon, and like many of us who reach that milestone, it’s trying not to look its age.

Television’s longest-running prime-time program begins a new era this weekend at the ABC network after 16 years at CBS. Ask the people at Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards if viewers can expect a new look, or new anything, and you’ll get a standard response.

“My assignment is to do wonderful, high-quality productions that equate this brand with positive human values,” said Brad Moore, a 32-year veteran of the company and the president of Hall of Fame Productions. “The fact that we’ve changed networks doesn’t mean we’re changing what we’re doing.”

But look closely and you’ll see a nip here, a tuck there. The promos running on ABC seem just a tad livelier than the ones that aired on CBS. The first two “Hall of Fames” at ABC have not a single star older than 52; the last two “Hall of Fames” at CBS featured, among others, 89-year-old Betty White and 59-year-old Treat Williams.

Hallmark executives stress that these changes are evolutionary and have been going on for decades as “Hall of Fame” has adapted to the changing realities of network television. One of those realities is that CBS is a different network since “CSI” came along.

“This is in no way critical of CBS, who were great partners, but they modified their programming approach over the years,” Moore said. “Our fit with ABC is better. Their programming tends to be more emotionally based and more female-oriented.”

Appearing on four networks over six decades, “Hallmark Hall of Fame” is a relic of television’s long-forgotten “golden age.” But it is also a model of where many industry observers say television needs to go in the future: toward single-sponsor programs that are “DVR-proof,” with commercials that are tightly integrated into the show and just as compelling.

“Our research shows that viewers like the commercials as much as they like the movies,” Moore said. “When I explain this to my counterparts in Los Angeles, they look at me with awe.”

Still, it takes two to tango, and if “Hall of Fame” is to continue its unmatched run on broadcast TV it must deliver solid ratings to ABC with its three specials this season.

Adept at reinvention

In its final broadcast on CBS, the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” drew 8.6 million viewers, well below the network’s Sunday average. Its ratings were considerably lower among younger viewers — the very consumers who are vital to both the business of television and Hallmark.

On the other hand, reinvention seems to be in Hallmark’s DNA. After mass layoffs in 2008 and 2009, the company recognized that it would need to expand its core business beyond greeting cards and keepsakes, which were seasonal purchases.

So it moved aggressively into new products with year-round appeal. One addition is a line of recordable storybooks that allow children to have stories read to them in their parents’ voices when they are away.

These products will be front and center during the signature two-minute commercials for Hallmark that air throughout “Hall of Fame” this season. Viewers will be reminded that the company’s new slogan is “Life Is a Special Occasion,” a messaging strategy that extends to the choice of stories being told on “Hall of Fame.”

The first, airing 8 p.m. Sunday on KMBC, is based on the Mitch Albom best-seller “Have a Little Faith,” about an inspirational rabbi and preacher Albom knew.

The next, “A Smile as Big as the Moon,” about a special education teacher who takes his class to U.S. Space Camp in Alabama, will air in early 2012. The third, airing in the spring, will be about girls in a juvenile detention facility who learn life-saving skills as part of their rehabilitation.

“The fact that these stories reflect everyday lives and everyday people is very deliberate,” said Lisa Macpherson, Hallmark’s senior vice president of marketing. “It would be very unlikely for the next production we do to be a period drama or to be based around a singular, once in a lifetime event.”

Reinvention is nothing new for Hallmark’s signature program, either.

Focus turns to women

When “Hallmark Hall of Fame” flickered to life in 1951, American networks were in the middle of only their fourth full season. Almost everything in prime time was live, which meant lots of quiz shows, boxing matches and other cheap, ready-made entertainment.

If a sponsor wanted to stand out, it had to shell out. And in the 1950s no company rose to the occasion better than Kraft Foods. Its weekly “Kraft Television Theatre” staged more than 650 live productions that were loaded with writing and acting talent. One 1956 re-enactment of the sinking of the Titanic had 107 actors.

Hallmark never aspired to that kind of output. Its specials were, then as now, timed to card-giving holidays. But company founder Joyce C. Hall was as determined as any sponsor to make his mark on the new medium. The first production, “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” won the first of 11 Peabody Awards for “Hall of Fame” and the first of 80 Emmy Awards, both records for an entertainment program. Hallmark amassed critical and peer acclaim by going the prestige route, with fresh interpretations of classic works as well as the best of contemporary drama.

“J.C. Hall was a real fan of theater, and a lot of the early ‘Hallmark Hall of Fames’ were Shakespeare, Shaw and Ibsen, as well as more recent plays like ‘Dial M for Murder’ and ‘Johnny Belinda,’ ” said Jan Parkinson, a longtime “Hall of Fame” executive. “But that was at a time when there wasn’t as much regional theater, and a lot of the country was getting exposed to these productions for the first time.”

As viewers gravitated toward Westerns and other formulaic dramas, most sponsors, including Kraft, abandoned live drama. But Hallmark persevered.

Tim Brooks, a former TV executive and historian, said that unlike most corporate advertisers, “Hallmark was a smaller company with management in the family that went their own way. If they’d had an executive committee of outsiders, they probably would’ve gotten out, too.”

Instead, Hallmark took control of the production process, which had been handled for 35 years by its advertising agency. “Hall of Fame” commissioned historical dramas like “The Other World of Winston Churchill” while continuing to feature top New York stage productions, including “The Fantasticks” and “Inherit the Wind.” By the mid-1980s it was winning acclaim for a string of social-concern dramas like “Promise” (schizophrenia) and “My Name Is Bill W.” (alcoholism).

By the late 1980s, Hallmark was moving toward stories about relationships. By this time research was showing that cable channels had begun to fragment the television audience and that broad-based crowd-pleasers would soon be a thing of the past.

“We decided we’d better be focusing on women,” Moore said. Hallmark still filmed historical dramas, but now they featured strong female protagonists, like Jessica Lange’s character in the adaptation of Willa Cather’s “O Pioneers!”

“We became known for a certain emotional, heartwarming drama,” Moore said. “We’ve stayed there, but the subject matter has become more contemporary.”

Younger viewers on ABC

Though the audience has often forced Hallmark to change its approach, the move to ABC is a case of the sponsor changing its audience. On Sunday nights ABC is a markedly different arena than CBS, thanks to a number of relationship dramas that have proven to be hugely popular among women ages 18-49, starting with “Desperate Housewives” in 2004.

Fortunately for Hallmark, the show that precedes “Hall of Fame” on ABC, “Once Upon a Time,” is the network’s highest-rated new show of the season and is second only to “Modern Family” among ABC shows in its appeal to viewers ages 18-49. It draws 40 percent more young adults than “The Amazing Race,” the reality show that led into “Hall of Fame” on CBS.

“Ideally we can deliver to the franchise an audience CBS wasn’t reaching earlier,” said Quinn Taylor, the ABC executive in charge of movies and miniseries. “To me, it highlights the legacy and tradition of Hallmark, but with a very modern ABC feel.”

Ten years ago, the Hallmark Channel launched, giving Hallmark its own cable outlet for “Hall of Fame” repeats. Beginning this season, they will air on Hallmark Channel a week after their ABC broadcast, which will allow the company to claim additional sets of eyes in the overall audience.

It’s possible that someday Hallmark will have no choice but to leave network TV and air “Hall of Fame” exclusively on its cable home. But Moore, “Hall of Fame’s” president, is optimistic that won’t be for a long time.

“We’ve been able to stem the tide of audience erosion, certainly better than anybody that’s been around 60 years. The biggest pressure in day-to-day work is finding the right idea — one that’s worthy of being produced and shared as a ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame.’ It’s a very high standard. But as I always tell people, I have the best job in television. And I get to live here in Kansas City.”